Black-ish Had To Pull Their Trump Episode Together Really Fast

Sesali BowenJan 12, 2017 5:55 PM

Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty.

Tuesday’s episode of Black-ish made it among the first scripted series to address Donald Trump’s controversial win in the 2016 election (aside from SNL, of course). But it wasn’t easy. The show’s cast and crew had to hustle to make it happen.

Show creator Kenya Barris shared with Vulture the hectic timeline that culminated with the hilarious episode, "Lemons," we saw on Tuesday. Not wasting a moment, Barris started writing for the episode the day after the election and continued over Thanksgiving. He says that his post team worked “like crazy” editing over the Christmas holiday. “We knew we wanted to do it, but it was definitely the quickest we ever produced an episode.”

He even switched time slots with another director because he wanted to direct the episode himself.

Barris had a lot of motivation to get the episode done so quickly. He told Vulture that the strong sentiments of fatality and doom around him were frightening as a father. “I understood where those emotions were coming from. I really felt like the only way we were going to have a future is if we start a dialogue.”

And start a dialogue he did. The highlight of the episode is the conversation between Dre and his coworkers about how white women failed Hillary. It’s super funny, but so real — exactly what we're used to seeing from the whip-smart sitcom.